Love Life

September 22, 2014

I can´t remember the name, but you know that church movie, the one where at the end Jesus Christ comes and the prophet that waited to see Jesus his whole life gets healed and gets to see him?... Sorry if I ruined the ending for someone. Anyway. That movie. 

That movie always stressed me out at the end because there are hundreds of people that want to see Jesus and I just was thinking about all the people that were far away or that couldn´t see him very well. Or, when Jesus comes again and there are millions of people in the world and all of us are gonna want to talk to him and see him... but I´ve been reading in 3 Nephi this week about when Jesus came to las Americas. 3 Nephi 11:15 and 17:21. Talks about how Jesus healed EVERY ONE of the children, and every single person could come to him and feel the marks in his hands and feet. Jesus didn´t forget about or pass over a single person. 

I know that was true then and also now. That not a single person is forgotten or passed over. Every prayer that is offered is heard. Every person is attended to. Our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us more than we even know. 

Speaking of love. This week we talked with a sister here that has a hard time loving a couple of members of the rama. She has this hate in her heart that is literally ruining her life. Matt.18:15. 

We are happy when we love others. When we aren´t centered in ourselves. And when we forgive other people. There is a scripture in 1 Peter that is one of my ALL TIME FAVORITES. I think it´s 3:10. But basically it says that those that don´t gossip and choose to say good things about others will LOVE THEIR LIFE. If you want to love your life, love other people :)   

On the investigator side of things, it´s going great. Julio is just crushing it. He´s my fav. He´s dejaring to smoke. He used to smoke 40 cigarillos a day and now we are at 13 a day. He´s so excited to get baptized. We just have to cut the cigarillos first.  

Saturday we did divisiones with a couple members so we could visit twice as many people and with the 4 of us we got a couple menos activos to church. So excited about them. Monica is gonna be a lider someday. I just know it.

Still loving life. I love being a missionary. 

Don´t forget your scriptures. 

Hermana Peterson 

Good Living

Abi!!!!!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! You guys are all grown up these days. I hope you had an awesome birthday and week!!!!!!!!!!!!

It´s comforting to know that I can find all the respuestas I need in the gospel. This week we talked to a Lady, Ruth, who was telling us that her daughter has TONS of questions relating to religion and church. Stuff about what happens after death, what a profeta is, how do we know if the church we are going to is right. And she was like, "After she goes to bed, I pull out the bible and try to find the answers to her questions." She found the right people to answer her questions, right? Haha, we teach those things EVERYDAY. A bunch of times a day. But I really do know that por media de el libro de mormon and profetas hoy en dia, we have all the answers we need!!!!! We don´t have to live in confusion!

Another guy, Carlos, told us that he feels like a bad parent and wants to help his family but doesn´t know how. Through the gospel, we find all these answers! There isn´t a manual for good parenting or good daughtering or good living, but we have the scriptures and the profetas to guide us and help us out!! We really don´t need to stress out about that if we are trying our best to follow Jesus Christ. 

Speaking of profetas, are you guys stoked for General Conference???? It´s like Christmas for us here. We´ve got our count down going. Be thinking of your questions!!!

I love you all. Muchas gracias por sus oracions!

Amor!

Hermana Peterson

Gone to the Dogs

I feel like it´s about time I said something about the dogs here. Hopefully, this doesn´t turn into a venting session. haha 

So the very first night I got here to Argentina I remember that I couldn´t sleep because of all the dogs that were barking right outside the window. I remember thinking, "This is going to be a really long year and a half."

This week I was thinking about how I hadn´t really heard the dogs barking outside lately. That same night when I went to bed I realized that there were still hundreds of dogs barking outside but we are just so tired at the end of the day that we fall right asleep. 

Every time we walk past a house, the dogs run up to the fence jumping and barking. Every time we knock a door, the first thing we do is close the fence or look to make sure the wall is high enough that the dogs can´t jump out. We have weekly scares of almost dying and fighting the stray dogs off. 

This week I had the biggest scare of my life. Honestly nothing even happened, but I really thought in my head, "This is it." Haha! So, nobody ever ties up their dog unless they are REALLY bad. If they are bad, they roam, free to bite and attack. But if they are REALLY bad, sometimes they tie them up. My comp wanted to clap this one house that had the meanest, scariest, blackest, biggest dog I´ve seen in Argentina. It was chained up and had this full on harness thing and the chain was attached to two different stakes in the ground. Obviously we examined the situation before we knocked. We started clapping and the Dog started running FULL SPEED at us. The first stake ripped out of the ground and I literally thought I was dead. I started bookin' it. The dog got super close to us and luckily the second stake held in the ground. #almostdied

We had a lesson with this really sweet family. All the children have special needs and problems. They live in a really humble home with hardly anything. We introduced ourselves and were asking the mom about her family and she asked us if we would go in and see her daughter. We were a little confused, but we walked to the back of the house and one of her daughters that is handicapped was laying on the bed. The mom was asking us to try to get her to get up and bathe herself and talk to her. The daughter, Fransica, has been there for months and wouldn´t move or talk to anyone. We talked to her for a little bit and she started crying and got up to take the picture of Jesucristo. When we left, she was on her bed but sat up for a minute. That moment humbled me so much. 

I couldn´t help but think of the people that begged Jesus Christ to help their sick and afflicted. It is so amazing to me that we are complete strangers but because we represent Him, this lady invited us into her home and wanted us to help her daughter. I'm so grateful for the opportunity that I have to be a missionary. 

Love you!

Daily Plans

Hi family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well.

I just have such a strong testimony that this is God´s work. He literally leads us and guides us and all we have to do is be willing to follow the spirit. We make plans every night and then carry them out the next day. Not gonna lie, I don´t think there´s been a SINGLE day on my mission that our plans have gone exactly as we planned them at night. But, it´s cool, because God´s really the one making the better plan and it works out the way he wants it. 

We were looking for an address this week and we knocked on this door, and a lady came out and was like, "Can you guys come back and teach me tomorrow? Right now I can´t listen but I want you to come back." OK. So. We hear that every day. "Maybe another day." But. She talked to us a little longer and it turns out that her husband is a member and they just moved here and she wants to listen and come to church. 

There´s no way that we just "randomly" found her. There are thousands of houses in our area. 

Felix and Carlos. They were our other miracle this week. I wish I had time to explain every miracle that happened up to the point of meeting them. But. Carlos tambien is a member who isn´t on our list of members. We talked to a chain of people until we ended up at their house. The next day, we passed by their house for church and Carlos was all ready. (Uhhh. That alone is a milagro). When they got to the church Carlos was like, "Wait, I got baptized here when I was 8." Hahaha! So cool. 

I love you guys!!!!! Read your scriptures! Say your prayers!

Besos!

Hermana Peterson